


In Sickness

by Sirenidae



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mild Language, Minor Violence, One Shot, Prompt Fic, Short, Sick Sasha
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-22
Updated: 2013-08-22
Packaged: 2017-12-24 07:01:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/936810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sirenidae/pseuds/Sirenidae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sasha catches the flu. Aleksis tries to take care of her and learns that there is something else troubling his new wife.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Sickness

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place three years before the events of Pacific Rim when Sasha is 30 and Aleksis is 23 (yeah, I’m sticking with the original ages) in the Vladivostok shatterdome. They have been married for about two weeks.
> 
> For an anonymous request coming from my [Pacific Rim Fic Prompt and Rec post](http://thebitchqueenofangmar.tumblr.com/post/58202833041/pacific-rim-fic-prompts-or-requests) on tumblr.
> 
> View original post [here](http://thebitchqueenofangmar.tumblr.com/post/58979380254/in-sickness-for-anon).

The clacks and knocks of wooden sticks sounded loudly from within the Kwoon. The noise of the Jaeger pilot trainees sparring with one another constantly permeated the air of the Vladivostok shatterdome and gave many of the PPDC staff headaches. “It’s always so fucking noisy!” they would complain to one another as they went about their shifts.

Some would give a short laugh in reply, agreeing. “That’s why I always try and pull night duty.” Others would smile lightly and get on with their tasks, usually these were the most tenured PPDC employees who were used to the noise.

Yet, there was one who would hear the crashes coming from the Kwoon and smile, heading straight for the room, wanting to add the vibrational sounds of her own quarterstaff to the cacophony of noise. The husband of this someone would complain about this behavior, saying that his wife had no business waking him up at five in the morning just so she could beat him up.

"Sasha, I’m tired. Please don’t drag me to sparring practice today." 

“Get your butt out of bed, Lieutenant Kaidanovsky!” the woman named Sasha was saying to the man who had complained, slapping him on the slope of his lower back as he lay belly-down in their shared bed, trying to ignore her loud words. Always after much coaxing, Sasha would convince her husband to roll out of bed and come with her to the Kwoon. Not before, however, he stood in their room, blinking slowly until she handed him a cup of coffee, her neck craning as she looked up into his sleepy face.

To say that Lieutenant Aleksis Kaidanovsky was tall was to say that the Kaiju were mean: understatements suited neither him nor his body. Aleksis had not always been so big, only about 7 lbs. 13 oz. as a newborn. In fact, up to when Aleksis had turned eight years old, he was quite normal. Then he began to grow. First it was five feet, then it was five and a half, and then soon it was six feet. Aleksis would reach the heights well before any of his peers, easily surpassing even the tallest boys in school. He had a terrible time of it too, his knees and other joints constantly ached, especially when he was a teenager, and his spacial-body awareness never really caught up to him until he enlisted as a Ranger and until he met Sasha. Until she taught him how to fight.

“Come on, husband,” Sasha smiled. “The Kwoon waits for no man, no matter how newly married he may be.” 

Aleksis gave her a gentle smile, his love for her full in eyes. “I am still sorry we were not able to get a honeymoon,” he said. Sasha waved it away.

“Don’t dwell on that, Aleksis, you’ll make yourself crazy, and me annoyed.” She indicated the coffee mug, still steaming, in his hand. “Drink and get dressed.” 

“I just don’t see why it always has to be five in the morning,” Aleksis grumbled, the noise rumbling deep in his chest. Sasha laughed.

“Because the Kaiju wait for no man!” Sasha cried out with a silly grin on her face, holding up her arms above her head. “No matter how…” Her sentence ended in a muffled sigh as Aleksis bent to kiss her, carefully placing his coffee mug down on the table next to him. Sasha let her arms fall around the man’s wide and muscled shoulders, intertwining her hands behind his neck, her fingers curling in his hair. Aleksis wrapped his arms around her waist, picking her up slightly so he didn’t have to bend down so far.

The pair had only been married for two weeks, joined together in matrimony by a close friend from the shatterdome, a PPDC officer who was formerly a minister. “It’s a long story,” the officer had said when they had first met him. Once Sasha and Aleksis had finally gained permission from the PPDC to be wed, they immediately asked him to officiate, but they broached the subject with some hesitation.

“We don’t really believe in God,” Sasha had said.

The former minister shrugged. “I don’t really either, hence, the career change.”

“But you can do it, right?” Aleksis’ brow had been creased in worry and the officer had laughed.

“Don’t worry, big guy, I’m still licensed and I can have you married to your lady love at anytime.” 

Sasha had raised her eyebrows at this. “Anytime?”

The officer nodded. “Anytime.”

They were married the next day, right there on the floor of the shatterdome, between the feet of Cherno Alpha. Everyone showed up, squishing in together on the floor or hanging from the catwalks, whooping in their support, waving hats or dirty rags when Aleksis and Sasha kissed to seal their marriage. There was no rice to throw in celebration, instead a couple of welders had positioned themselves near Cherno Alpha’s fists, blasting their torches and creating a shower of harmless sparks to fall over the couple. Sasha and Aleksis were both wearing their PPDC regulation ceremonial full dress uniforms and the pair even allowed a couple of pictures to be taken before Sasha got antsy.

“I have business to take care of,” she said with a wicked grin, shoving aside a camera. “Business with my new husband.” The crowd had laughed, those who were near enough to have heard the risqué joke relaying it back to those who hadn’t. As the newlyweds left the shatterdome floor, they did so to uproarious applause. That night, that first night together, Aleksis and Sasha had been idly planning a honeymoon, daydreaming about their fantasy vacation when the Kaiju alarm had sounded, bringing them back to reality.

In the present, Sasha stepped back from the kiss, breaking away from Aleksis’ hug. “Drink and get dressed,” she repeated. 

Aleksis groaned. “You’re a slave driver!” he complained, picking the cup of coffee up again and sipping at the hot liquid.

"And you’re a baby," she replied. “Hurry up, I’m bored.”

Aleksis eventually finished his coffee and pulled on some clothes for sparring. He allowed himself to be led by Sasha out of their room and down the hall, watching her walk in front of him, enjoying the view. “You should not be full of all this energy, you’re much too old,” Aleksis gently teased when they were in the elevator. One of his large arms was slung around Sasha’s shoulders, holding her close to his side. She squirmed. 

“Thirty is not so old,” Sasha said, grunting as she managed to wiggle out from under the weight of his arm. Just for fun, she twisted his wrist around suddenly, yanking his arm back into a fighter’s double joint lock. “You’re the one who is disgracing his age.” She clucked her tongue and shook her head sadly, affecting her voice with a maudlin tone. “Only twenty-three and past his prime. Oh, woe is Aleksis!”

Aleksis laughed, gasping with pain at the same time. “Okay, okay! I give up, Sasha! I give up!” She released him and he immediately grappled her into a full nelson as the elevator doors opened and they spilled out into the hallway leading to the Kwoon, laughing heartily. Two half-asleep LOCCENT workers shuffled past the Kaidanovskys into the recently vacated elevator, squinting at them. If they had been more awake, one of them might have commented on their raucous behavior so early in the morning. As it was, the taller of the two workers just shook his head slightly and pressed a button in the elevator to close the doors.

Sasha sniffed, wiping her nose on her sleeve. “More people should like the mornings,” she said, nodding at the closing elevator. She gave a little cough and walked on. Aleksis followed and gave a low growl of a chuckle.

“You are not better than everyone just because you wake up early.” Sasha turned and raised a dark eyebrow at her husband’s temerity. His face fell at her expression. “I was just kidding Sasha,” he said quickly. 

“I don’t care if you were kidding, you are going to pay for that comment later.” Sasha mimed smacking him on the back of his head with a quarterstaff.

“Any excuse, right?” Aleksis smiled, sharing an inside joke.

Sasha’s face softened, but something remained hidden in her eyes. “Any excuse.” 

At half past five in the morning, Sasha and Aleksis were the only two people in the Kwoon. Normally they liked to show-off, but they preferred it this way when they sparred, leaving their theatrics for when they were in their Jaeger. Still, and not that the Kaidanovskys minded too much, others began to trickle into the training room around 6:15. They came to stretch and warm up for their own sparring bouts, but most were there to watch.

Everyone wanted to see the two tall and muscular blondes fight each other; wanted to see these two heroes of the north, the Russian Rangers. They came to see Sasha’s speed and cunning, her battle techniques were revered by all who studied it. They came to gaze in awe at Aleksis’ brute strength and how he managed to fight with such a huge body. They stayed to watch how the physically uneven pair appeared impossibly graceful together, matching each other equally blow for blow. Some who came to watch these sessions claimed that they could actually see a corporeal manifestation of the Drift between the man and the woman, but such things were of course nonsense. 

Sasha and Aleksis sparred like no one else, a style as unique to them as a fingerprint, but today something was wrong. Sasha felt her stomach churn as she flipped and circled around Aleksis with her quarterstaff. Her nose hurt, too, further putting her off of the fight. Something dripped in the back of her throat and Sasha coughed, hesitating for only a moment, but allowing Aleksis to take advantage of her distraction. He got in a solid jab with his staff to her ribs. Sasha stumbled back on her bare feet, trying to regain her balance. “Fuck!” she exclaimed in surprise.

Aleksis stood, dropping his staff to a passive position. “I’m sorry, Sasha,” he said, worried.

She held her ribs and frowned up at him. “Never apologize for a hit, Aleksis. Do you think the Kaiju would do the same?” Sasha coughed again, the back of her wrist covering her mouth.

"Something caught in your throat?" Aleksis teased.

Sasha crouched back into a ready stance. “Only my disgust for your fighting style,” she joked back, laughing a little. The action made her breath catch in her lungs and Sasha coughed again, this time unable to stop. “Jesus,” she managed to say through the fit. “I think I need some water.” She tried to smile at Aleksis but was interrupted when she began to cough once more, doubling over with the force.

Aleksis began to approach her. “Sasha…” he began, cautiously. She held out a hand telling him to stop, supporting her weight with her other hand on one of her knees.

She grinned up at him, the smile harsh and nervous. “I’m fine, I’m…” Sasha groaned then, using the hand that had stopped her husband to clutch at her forehead. “What the fuck…” she muttered through another groan. Around them, those who had gathered to watch began to nudge one another and point, concerned. “Let’s keep going.” Sasha gritted her teeth and used her staff as support to straighten up.

Aleksis gave a short bark of a laugh, not at all amused. “No, we’re done here,” he said firmly. Aleksis strode up to her; dropping his staff and making her drop hers before shoving his arm under her shoulder and propping her up. She began to protest his help. “Stop it, Sasha,” Aleksis said, dragging her lip body toward the door. “You’re sick.” 

“No I’m not,” she said. Then, Sasha made an odd noise, coughed once, and puked on the ground. 

She woke up in her bed, not knowing how much time had passed, but knowing that she felt at once both sweaty and freezing. It was a very odd sensation… Sasha cried out, realizing what was wrong. “I’m not sick!” she yelled, sounding as if she were trying to convince her body otherwise more than another person. Movement came from the end of the bed and Sasha looked down her nose to see who was there.

Aleksis was sitting cross-legged at the foot of their bed, back against the wall, head down around his chin: he was sleeping. Sasha nudged him with her foot. If she were awake and miserable then he would be too. “What?” he said, startled from his nap. He looked at Sasha and blinked. “What is it? What’s wrong?” 

Sasha glared at him. “What the fuck do you think is wrong?”

Aleksis cleared his throat and rubbed his neck, trying to shake off his sleepiness. “You have the ‘flu.”

“No I don’t,” Sasha contradicted immediately.

“Sasha, you puked all over the Kwoon floor.”

She wrinkled her nose dismissively. “Just a cold is all.”

Aleksis snorted. “Some cold.”

Abruptly, Sasha began to thrash about in the bed, trying to get out from underneath several layers of heavy blankets. “I need to get out, right now!” she shouted. “I need to see another doctor! A better doctor!” Before she could hurt herself, Aleksis dove over her, large hands pinning down the fabric on either side of Sasha’s shoulders, trapping her under the mess of blankets. She was too ill to physically protest further.

Sasha’s eyes spoke volumes of fury. “Let me out.” Each word was spoken through clenched teeth.

Alekesis shook his head. “This is for your own good.”

“I hate you,” she spit out, eyes dark and bitter over the tops of the blankets.

“Yeah, well, tough,” Aleksis said, remaining where he was. In his heart, however, he knew she had honestly meant some part of those words and it hurt. Her behavior recently had confused him to no end. 

Sasha began to weep. She was too weak to cry fully so she just lay there, under the layers of thick blankets, making pitiful whimpering sounds Aleksis had never before heard her make. The sobs soon died off but Aleksis hesitated before making a sound. “Sasha?” he asked. When she didn’t reply, he leaned closer to see what she was doing. He sat back and sighed after realizing that she had fallen asleep.

The next time Sasha woke, the room was empty. She turned her head to see a mug of lukewarm chicken broth cooling on a chair within arms reach of the bed. Ignoring it, Sasha concentrated her energy on removing the blankets from her body. Grunting with the effort, Sasha cursed her weakened state. It took her the better part of five minutes to disentangle herself completely from the swaddle. She was breathing heavily and sweating profusely as she sat up in bed. 

“Next step, uniform,” she said, after having looked down at her body to see that she was unclothed except for underwear and a PPDC regulation tank top: Aleksis must have undressed her. For some reason, this fact irked Sasha, making her mood even worse.

“Get up,” she told herself, pushing off the bed and standing, closing her eyes against the sensation of rushing blood that left her dizzy. Clamping her teeth down on the insides of her cheeks, Sasha forced her body to swallow its urge to vomit. “Once was enough today,” she said sternly. Then she paused. Was it the same day? It had to be, although Sasha felt as if she had slept for a year.

Focusing on putting one foot in front of the other, Sasha crossed the floor in her and Aleksis’ quarters from the bed to the opposite wall where a large locker stood, housing their clothes. Opening the metal doors, Sasha searched for what she thought would be easiest to put on. She found a Cherno Alpha jumpsuit and new sport bra. The peeled off the tank she was wearing and threw it to the ground, disgusted with the sickness-sweat. Taking off her sport bra and donning the new one proved a bit more difficult as the elastic was tight and straps twisted in spite of her efforts. 

Resting for a moment before she tackled the jumpsuit, Sasha leaned into the locker, resting her forehead on the cool metal. She wondered briefly what her temperature was before growling in annoyance. “Normal,” she said, standing up and putting on the jumpsuit. “It’s normal.” The door opened then and Sasha froze, one foot in the jumpsuit, another hovering over the next leg hole. She wobbled. “Aleksis,” she said obviously.

Aleksis groaned and shut the door. “I knew you would do this. Sasha, not getting enough rest… You can’t just will yourself better.”

Sasha put her other foot in the jumpsuit, tugging it up over her legs and tying the sleeves together at her waist. “Don’t tell me what to do.” She reached up to a shelf in their locker, searching for a shirt that wasn’t soaked in sweat.

Aleksis stared at her open mouthed. “You know I don’t ever tell you what to do.”

Sasha shrugged as she picked out a shirt and pulled it on over her head. “Who knows,” she said, her voice slightly muffled through the fabric. Her head popped out of the neck hole and she adjusted the shirt. “You might start now.”

Aleksis scoffed incredulously. “Is this about you being sick or is this about something else?”

Sasha stared at him. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

"Is this about us being married now?" He said slowly, enunciating every word with the calm sort of cadence that comes before a fight. "Because if it is, we need to have a serious conversation." Sasha opened her mouth and then closed it again. She did this a few times, her brain processing too many things at once. Aleksis sighed.

“Sasha,” he said. “I am not here to take away your independence. Do you understand that?” She turned her head away, childishly stubborn. “Do you, Sasha?”

“Yes, okay?” she said, a bit louder than she meant to.

Aleksis raised his eyebrows. “Really? Because all the evidence so far points to the contrary.”

Sasha scrunched up her nose. “I’m not a scientific report.”

“But I am your husband!” Aleksis yelled, his patience finally snapping. “And you are my wife! Damn it, Sasha, we are a  _team_ , both in and out of a Jaeger, and I deserve to know why you’re acting this way!” Sasha rolled her eyes at his outburst, but his words stuck a chord within her. 

“I don’t like being sick,” she said, not meeting his eyes.

“And that’s it?” he asked dubiously. When she remained silent, he crossed his arms. “I’m not leaving until you tell me.”

“I could always make you leave,” Sasha said darkly.

Aleksis laughed. “With what strength?” He considered her for a moment longer. “I’m not trying to take control of you, Sasha, and I never will. Just because we’re now married doesn’t mean you can’t live your life.”

Sasha pressed her lips tightly together. “Then let me live it!”

“I  _am_  letting you!” Aleksis shouted as his temper flared again. Sasha looked away from him and his anger until he calmed. When she didn’t say anything, he spoke again, softer. “I thought you trusted me.”

Sasha heaved a great sigh and sat down in a chair next to the locker. “I  _do_ trust you, of course I trust you.” She spoke with her hand over her forehead, shielding her eyes and trying to soothe a pounding headache. “I married you didn’t I?” Aleksis caught her tone.

“If that was such a horrible decision, why did you do it?” Sasha looked out from underneath the visor of her hand at this. “Why did you marry me? Hmm? If it’s such a painful burden?”

“Aleksis, I never said that,” she protested. 

He scoffed. “Yeah? But you meant it. I can hear it in your voice; see it in your eyes when you look at me. You think you’ve made a mistake, don’t you? You think that for some reason marrying me was the worst possible thing you’ve ever done in your life.”

Sasha’s lips twisted into a smirk. “I think that’s what they call ‘projecting’,  _dear_.”

“See!” Aleksis pointed to her. “Right then, you don’t…I don’t know you have this attitude. I’m sorry if I’ve done something wrong, but I need you to tell me because I don’t know what it is.”

“You haven’t done anything!” Sasha shouted, albeit weakly because of her sickness. “I just…” she trailed off, blood pounding in her ears. She needed to get back in bed. Maybe getting dressed hadn’t been the smartest idea after all. She stood up, using the chair for support, and begin her slow trek back over to the bed. Aleksis moved to help but she shook her head. “Let  _me_  do it for fuck’s sake.” He held back, watching silently as she shuffled across their room. Upon reaching the bed, Sasha sat down heavily and coughed. Looking up she saw that Aleksis was still staring evenly at her and she rolled her eyes. “You’re really going to make me say this, aren’t you?” 

“Yes.”

Sasha growled in annoyance. “What if I  _have_  made a mistake?” Aleksis began to stir but Sasha spoke over his movements. “Listen to me. What if I am the fucking shit-for-brains idiot who went and married her Jaeger copilot?” 

“I don’t see what that…”

“What if you die, Aleksis!” Sasha abruptly interjected. “What then? If you go before me I don’t think I could live with myself.” Aleksis was surprised; he had not expected this conversation to take that turn.

“The rate you’re going,” he said, softening the moment with a joke. “You’ll probably go first.” Sasha didn’t laugh. 

“I’m serious. I want to protect you, I  _need_  to protect you, and yet here I am, the most selfish woman in the world, stringing you along with me into danger.” She ended the sentence with a sneeze.

Aleksis stared at her. “Where you go, you know I willingly follow.”

“I don’t like that on my conscience.” 

“Good, because it is not on your conscience.” 

Sasha huffed, crossing her arms in annoyance. “You’re such a child.”

He shook his head, moving to sit next to her on the mattress. “Distancing yourself from me won’t make this any better. Now who’s the child?” She turned and poked him on the chest with a forefinger.

“Still you! You’re so young, and I  _hate_  myself for being Drift compatible with you, for being in love with you. That’s the blackness you feel when we’re in Cherno together. I hate that I may be leading you to your death or me to mine. I know how I would feel if I were made to live without you. I dare not impart that same burden unto you.”  

“When we do die,” Aleksis said stoically. “We will die together, I know this in my heart.” 

Sasha snorted. “What, like some great fictional love? I don’t think so.”

“Whatever you say,” Aleksis said without really agreeing. They looked at each other before Aleksis gathered her into his arms. She hugged him back, fiercely, with all her might.

“I do love you, you know,” Sasha said to him, her voice muffled as she spoke into his shoulder. He drew her back and looked down at her worried face. “A lot.”

Aleksis gave her a small smile. “I know.” 

She fidgeted, still perceverating on the subject. “It’s just hard, it’s too hard for me to think about sometimes.”

“Жизнь прожи́ть — не по́ле перейти́.”

Sasha pulled a face. “I can’t take your dumb idioms right now, Aleksis. Go away.” 

Aleksis stood from his seat on the edge of the bed. He kissed her once on the forehead before turning away. “I’ll leave you to your thoughts, then,” he said, crossing over to the door. “Lights on or off?” He asked at the threshold, hand hovering over the switch.

Sasha considered. “Off,” she said. Maybe the darkness of the room would convince her mind to stop thinking long enough for a nap. She doubted it; it had never helped before… she thought drowsily, yawning once before drifting off into a deep and healing sleep.


End file.
